Unit 2 topic 1 AS and A Level management and leadership

2AS.1 MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

MANAGEMENT AND MANAGERS

THE FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT – WHAT MANAGERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR

1. Setting objectives and planning • Senior management will establish overall strategic objectives and these

will be translated into tactical objectives for less senior management staff.

• Planning in order to complete objectives is Important.• New production or marketing objective will require the planning,

preparation of sufficient resources.


2. Organising resources to meet the objectives• People need to be recruited carefully and encouraged to take authority

and accept accountability via delegation.• Senior managers will ensure that the structure of the business allows for

a clear division of tasks and that each section or department is 0organised to allow them to work towards the common objectives.


3. Directing and motivating staff• Guiding, leading and overseeing of employees to ensure that

organisational goals are being met.• The significance of developing staff so that they are motivated to employ

all of their abilities at work is now widely recognised.• This will make it more likely that organisational aims are achieved.


4. Coordinating activities• Average size of business units increases- especially true for

multinationals, they need to ensure consistency and coordination between different parts of each firm increases.

• Goals of each branch, division, region and all staff must be welded together to achieve a common sense of purpose.

• At a practical level this can mean avoiding the situation where two divisions of the same company both spend money on researching into the same new product resulting wasteful duplication of effort.


5. Controlling and measuring performance against targets• Management by objectives establishes targets for all groups, divisions

and individuals.• It is management’s responsibility to appraise performance against targets

and to take action if under-performance occurs.• As Herzberg pointed out, it is just as important to provide positive

feedback when things keep going right.

MANAGEMENT ROLES• Managers have to undertake many different roles.• Henry Mintzberg (the Nature of Managerial Work, 1973) identified 10

roles common to the work of all managers.These are divided into 3 groups:• Interpersonal roles- dealing with and motivating staff at all levels of the

organisation.• Information roles- acting as a source, receiver and transmitter of

information.• Decision roles- taking decisions and allocating resources to meet the

organisation’s objectives.

ROLE TITLE DESCRIPTION OF ROLE ACTIVITIES

EXAMPLES OF MANAGEMENT ACTION TO PERFORM THE ROLE

1. INTERPERSONAL ROLESfigurehead Symbolic leader of the organisation

undertaking duties of a social or legal nature.

Opening new factories/offices; hosting receptions; giving important presentations.

Leader Motivating subordinates; selecting and training other managers/ staff.

Any management tasks involving subordinate staff.

Liason Linking with managers and leaders of other divisions of the business and other organisations.

Leading and participating in meetings; business correspondence with other organisations.

Managerial roles according to Mintberg



2. INFORMATIONAL ROLESMonitor (receiver)

Collecting data relevant to the business’s operations.

Attending seminars, business conferences, research groups, reading research reports.

Disseminator Sending information collected from external and internal sources to the relevant people within the organisation.

Communicating with staff within the organisation, using appropriate means.

Spokesperson Communicating information about the organisation- its current position and achievements- to external groups and people.

Presenting reports to groups of stakeholders (e.g. annual general meeting) and communicating with the press and TV media.




3. DECISIONAL ROLESentrepreneur Looking for new opportunities to

develop the business.Encouraging new ideas from within the business and holding meetings aimed at putting new ideas into effect.

Disturbance handler

Responding to changing situations that may put the business at risk, assuming responsibility when threatening factors develop.

Taking decisions on how the business should respond to threats, e.g. new competitors or changes in the economic environment.

Resource allocator

Deciding on the spending of the organisation’s financial resources and the allocation of its physical and human resources.

Drawing up and approving estimates and budgets; deciding on staffing levels for departments and within departments.

Negotiator Representing the organisation in all important negotiations, e.g. with government.

Conducting negotiations and building up official links between the business and other organisations.


LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP – THE IMPORTANCE OF IT AND QUALITIES NEEDED

• The art of motivating a group of people towards achieving a common objective.

• Key part of being a successful manager.• Setting a clear direction and vision for an organisation.• Employees will want to follow a good leader and respond positively to

them.• A poor leader will fail to win staff over and will have communication and

organising problems with staff.• The best managers are good leaders.• Managers that focus control and allocation of people and resources can fail

to provide a sense of purpose or focus that others will understand and be prepared to follow

LEADERSHIP – THE IMPORTANCE OF IT AND QUALITIES NEEDED

• Some studies argue that leaders are born with natural assets that create and aura or charisma that others find appealing

• Other research is more inclined to support the view that leaders can be trained to adopt the key attributes of good leadership.

Characteristics • Desire to succeed, natural self confidence.• Ability to think beyond the obvious, be creative and encourage others to do

the same.• Multi-talented so they can understand discussions about a wide range of

issues affecting the business.• Incisive mind that enables the heart of an issue to be identified rather than

unnecessary details.

IMPORTANT LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN BUSINESS

Directors• Senior managers are elected into office by shareholders in a limited

company.• Usually head of a major department e.g. marketing.• They are responsible for delegating, assisting in recruitment of senior

staff, meeting objectives set by the board of directors and communicating these to their department.


Managers • An individual responsible for people, resources or decision making.• They will have some authority over staff below them.• They will direct, motivate and if necessary discipline staff in their

department.


Supervisors• Appointed by management to watch over the work of others.• Not a decision making role, but have responsibility for leading a team of

people.• Modern role of these members is less of an inspector and more of a work

colleague appointed to help staff achieve objectives in a cooperative spirit.


Worker’s representatives• Elected by workers, either as trade union officials or as representatives on

works councils, in order to discuss areas of common concern with managers.

LEADERSHIP STYLES• This refers to the way in which managers take decisions and

communicate with their staff. 4 leadership styles:• Autocratic (authoritarian)• Democratic• Paternalistic • Laissez – faire

LEADERSHIP STYLESStyle Main features Drawbacks Possible applications

Autocratic • Leader takes all decisions.

• Gives little information to staff.

• Supervises workers closely.

• Only one-way communication.

• Workers only given limited information about the business.

• Demotivates staff who want to contribute and accept responsibility.

• Decisions do not benefit from staff input.

• Defence forces and police where quick decisions are needed and the scope for ‘discussion’ must be limited.

• In times of crisis when decisive action might be needed to limit damage to the business or danger to other.


Democratic • Participation encouraged.

• 2-way communication used, which allows feedback from staff.

• Workers given information about the business to allow full staff involvement.

• Consultation with staff can be time consuming.

• On occasions, quick decision making will be required.

• Level involvement- some issues might be too sensitive.

• Most likely to be useful in businesses that expect workers to contribute fully to the production and decision making processes, thereby satisfying their higher order needs.

• Experienced & flexible workforce likely to benefit most.

• Situations that demand a new way of thinking or a new solution, staff input can be valuable.


Paternalistic • Managers do what they think is best for workers.

• Some consultation might take place, but final decisions are taken by the managers – there is no true participation in decision making.

• Managers want workers to be happy in their jobs.

• Some workers will be dissatisfied with the apparent attempts to consult, while not having any real power or influence.

• Used by managers who have a genuine concern for workers’ interests, but feel that ‘managers know best’ in the end – when workers are young or inexperienced this might be an appropriate style to employ.


Laissez- faire • Managers delegate virtually all authority and decision-making powers.

• Very broad criteria or limits might be established for the staff to work within.

• Workers may not appreciate the lack of structure and direction in their work- this could lead to a loss of security.

• The lack of feedback- as managers will not be closely monitoring progress- may be demotivating.

• When managers are too busy to intervene.

• May be inappropriate in research institutions where experts are more likely to arrive at solutions when not constrained by narrow rules or management controls.

MCGREGOR’S THEORY X AND THEORY Y

Theory X managers believe that workers

Theory Y managers believe that workers

Dislike work Can derive as much enjoyment from work as from rest and play

Will avoid responsibility Will accept responsibility

Are not creative Are creative

THE BEST LEADERSHIP STYLE-IT DEPENDS ON MANY FACTORS

• Training and experience of the workforce and degree of responsibility that they are prepared to take on.

• The amount of time available for consultation and participation.• Attitude of managers, management culture, this will be influenced by the

personality and business background of the manager.• Importance of issues under consideration, different styles may be used in

the same business in different situations, there is great risk to the business when a poor or slow decision is taken, then it is more likely that management will make the choice in an autocratic way.

THE BEST LEADERSHIP STYLE-IT DEPENDS ON MANY FACTORS

Democratic leadership• Involving participation and 2-way communication – is increasingly common for a

number of reasons.• Working people are better educated than ever before and have higher expectations of

their experience from work, they expect higher-level needs to be partly satisfied at work.

• Managers have realised that the rapid pace of changes at work, as a result of technological and other factors.

• People find change less threatening and more acceptable if they have been involved in it.

• Managers will still avoid consultation and staff participation, because they find it difficult to adapt.

INFORMAL LEADERSHIP• A person who has no formal authority but has the respect of colleagues

and some power over them.• Appointing them as formal leaders might be wise, but in an organisation

where employer-employee relationships are not based on trust, the person concerned might lose support if they were seen ‘joining the other side’.

• Cutting them out or ignoring them could lead to disruptive behaviour as well as disruption of production.

• Managers should work with informal leaders to help achieve the aims of the business.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE• The ability of managers to understand their own emotions, and those of

the people they work with , to achieve better business performance.These put emphasis on emotional intelligence:• Understanding yourself, you goals, your behaviour and your response to

people.• Understanding others and their feelings.• The more emotionally intelligent a person is the higher the emotional

intelligence quotient will be.• Studies have suggested that business performance can be improved by

appointing people with high emotional intelligence.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE• Daniel Goleman- best known researcher in EI.• He suggested that EI has 4 main competencies:• Self-awareness• Self-management• Social awareness• Social skills

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCESelf-awareness• Knowing what we feel is important & using that to guide decision making.• Having a realistic view of our own abilities and being self-confident in our

abilitiesSelf-management• Being able to recover quickly from stress, being trustworthy and

conscientious, showing initiative and self-control.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCESocial awareness• Sensing what others are feeling being able to take their views into

account and being able to ‘get on’ with a wide range of people.Social skills• Handling emotions in relationships well and accurately understanding

different social situations; using social skills to persuade, negotiate and lead.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCEA manager with low levels of emotional intelligence would:• Attempt projects beyond their abilities but lack self-confidence that

targets would be met.• Lack the trust and confidence of others and be so stressed out that they

would be difficult to approach.• Fail to take the views of others into account when taking decisions.• Perform poorly in social situations, finding it difficult to talk and negotiate

with others, and lacking the ability to build a team.

Business

Unit 2 topic 1 AS and A Level management and leadership